Earth Day Network Blog Updates

Julian Koenig, who is widely regarded as one of the 20th century’s most innovative advertising writers and the creative force behind memorable campaigns, including for the original Volkswagen Beetle — and the name Earth Day — died on June 12 in Manhattan, according to the New York Times. He was 93.

In November of 2012 California voters approved Proposition 39. The law is designed to close a tax loophole that gave corporations a tax break for moving their jobs and investments to other states. Prop 39 fixed this problem by requiring multi-state companies to pay taxes based on their sales in California, and is predicted to generate an estimated $2.5 billion in revenue over a five-year period beginning in fiscal year 2013-2014. Read More

On Tuesday, Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, who is one of Pope Francis’ advisors on the matter of reforming the Catholic Church, defended the Pope’s views on capitalism and poverty. Stating that the elimination of the structural causes of poverty is an urgent issue, he also argued that the focus placed by modern society on markets and profit lead to the environment being set aside and easily ignored.

Today is World Environment Day. But what is the environmental crisis? Is it about climate? Is it about species? Is it about resource like water or land or "all of the above"? Is it mainly what the media decides to focus upon on a given day? I think we need to see it as larger than any of these issues.

We seem to be living in a time with many unknown factors are interacting with one another and the interaction is more than the sum of the parts. Sciences like ecology that try to show how many complex things interact should be our paradigm for what is happening.

A day after the U.S Environmental Protection Agency introduced a proposal that would cut carbon emissions, He Jiankun, chairman of China's Advisory Committee on Climate Change, announced that China will put a cap on emissions beginning in 2016. As the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, China’s cap on emissions poses as a major step in tackling the issue of global climate change.

On May 17, 2014, Earth Day Network working with its Denver partner, the Park People , and volunteers from Southwest Airlines, Monarch Montessor School teachers and community members on a organized a tree planting project at Monarch Montessori School in the Montbello neighborhood of northeast Denver, CO. Read More

Dennis Hayes, lifelong environmental activist and Earth Day Network chairman, was interviewed by CNN regarding the greenest commercial building in the world, the Bullitt Center in Seattle, WA. Hayes is the president and CEO of the Bullitt Foundation, and his leadership overseeing the construction of the Bullitt Center has been substantiated by the buildings numerous architecture and sustainability awards. The foundation is currently pursuing the International Living Future Institute’s prestigious Living Building Certification.